By Shelly Emling
Cox News Service

Instant messaging is still thought of mostly as the purview of tech savvy teenagers itching to chat live with friends about whether Kelsey likes Mark or Becky likes Jimmy.

But today, instant messaging (IM) is spreading faster than milfoil across corporate America — a phenomenon that's left employers scrambling to find ways to control and monitor employee use.

Responding to this need, the top consumer TM providers in recent weeks have launched new services designed specifically for businesses so that free instant-messaging clients are no longer allowed to run willy nilly on company networks.

Those providers include industry giant America Online, which is hoping to finally profit from a software it's given away free for more than five years.

But the immediate message for employees might surprise some: The adoption of IM tools by businesses means that what employees write could be scrutinized by their employers.

"A lot of employers have tried to keep IM out of the workplace but realize it's a losing battle, so now they're trying to enforce one certain standard that might include some monitoring features," said Sara Radicati, president of the Radicati Group, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based

Real-time communication

In the consumer world, instant messaging long has al lowed people to communicate with one another in real time, with text messages popping up immediately on a recipient's computer screen rather than lollygagging in their e-mail's in-box.

But as consumers grow more comfortable with IM, the grassroots adoption of free instant-messaging clients in the corporate world has started to unfold in a big way.

Researchers say 85 percent of U.S. companies have some type of IM on their computers. But most of those applications were downloaded by the employees without their bosses' consent.

And now as more companies try to work IM into their daily operations with the help of new services, many users of this consumer-friendly application — which boasts a breezy, casual feel — are un aware their companies might have access to every typo.

"It's such a casual form of communication that no one ever thinks about the fact that it might be recorded some where," Radicati said.

The IM consumer market has long been dominated by three powerhouses. AOL Time Warner Inc., with 180 million users, is tops with its popular AIM service. It is followed Microsoft Corp. with 75 million users and Yahoo Inc. with 20 million users.

Expanded messaging

Sprint, too, introduced a new IM tool for businesses recently that goes a step further by allowing employees to use TM to retrieve and exchange in formation held in customer databases.

Bruce Stewart, AOL senior vice president, said the company decided to develop a business service after receiving repeated requests for a more se cure version of the free plat form.

"This allows a company to manage the usage of AIM with in that company and to log all the TM traffic," he said. "The AIM sessions can be stored and are ultimately auditable so that you can go back and reference them"

AOL's Enterprise AIM Ser vice, which lets system administrators manage the use of messaging software from be hind a corporate firewall, is expected to cost about $34 to $40 per person annually. AOL's consumer version remains free.

In the first quarter of next year AOL plans also to offer encrypted messaging that can be read only by designated, registered recipients.

But what AOL won't be offering anytime soon is a common platform for instant messaging so that those using AIM can communicate with those using competing systems.

Analysts say that given AOL's prominence in instant messaging, the company so far hasn't felt compelled to open up its system even in the face of repeated calls from users to do so.

Meanwhile, the company generally more focused than AOL on the commercial marketplace — Microsoft — just released its own IM service for businesses and expects to charge about $24 per person per year.

But it's AOL's move into the

instant-messaging monitoring arena that's particularly significant simply because of its dominance in the consumer market, said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, a consulting firm in Black Diamond, Wash.

He said a third of all companies monitor their employees' e-mail so that "the monitoring of instant messages was the likely next step for employers."

Osterman said more control is especially essential in the financial sector and for other businesses required to keep track of communications with clients.

"Employers need systems that can capture traffic and store it so that what's said to clients can be proven to regulators down the road if need be," he said.

The importance of this has been highlighted by the recent federal probe into insider-trading charges against Martha Stewart.

Investigators have solicited countless e-mails from Stew art, saying they've cast doubt on her assertion that she had a preexisting arrangement with her broker to sell shares of Im-Clone stock if the price fell be low a certain level.

"Instant messages must be trackable because of securities regulations," said Maurene Ca- plan Grey, research director at Gartner Inc., a research firm in Stamford, Conn.

"It is a security risk for a company if instant messages are not controlled and are not sanctioned by anyone," she added. "I would guess that by the end of 2003 most companies will be looking at doing something to manage usage."

It's easy to see why companies might like the new TM tools. The application can foster productivity by allowing employees to easily and safely communicate in the blink of an eye with customers, suppliers, and colleagues with their employers checking for content and handling the storage.

"This supplies a real new level of efficiency for businesses," AOL's Stewart said. "In the end it's definitely a productivity tool."